APOD 14/12/2016

26th APOD

Messier 8

This is a new composition with data from VLT/OmegaCAM (red channel) used as luminance and amateur data, as RGB, that we recorded in Tenerife some months ago with a 350mm F3.3 and FLI ProLine 16803.

Data: ESO/INAF/OmegaCAM/DSS-2/R. Colombari/E. Recurt
Assembling and processing: R. Colombari
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The Lagoon Nebula is estimated to be between 4,000-6,000 light-years from the Earth. In the sky of Earth, it spans 90' by 40', which translates to an actual dimension of 110 by 50 light years. Like many nebulas, it appears pink in time-exposure color photos but is gray to the eye peering through binoculars or a telescope, human vision having poor color sensitivity at low light levels. The nebula contains a number of Bok globules (dark, collapsing clouds of protostellar material), the most prominent of which have been catalogued by E. E. Barnard as B88, B89 and B296. It also includes a funnel-like or tornado-like structure caused by a hot O-type star that emanates ultraviolet light, heating and ionizing gases on the surface of the nebula. The Lagoon Nebula also contains at its centre a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (so named by John Herschel), which should not be confused with the better known Hourglass Nebula in the constellation of Musca. In 2006 the first four Herbig–Haro objects were detected within the Hourglass, also including HH 870. This provides the first direct evidence of active star formation by accretion within it.[2]

Source: Wikipedia